Many telephone subscribers, particularly large business entities, provide sophisticated and diverse services and information to their customers over the telephone. To this end, 800 or toll-free numbers were established for customers to reach designated subscribers. The 800 service feature offers a subscriber a number of advantages. For example, an 800 telephone number may be associated with the subscriber rather than a local number for the subscriber's telephone equipment. As another example, calls placed to an 800 number may be directed to one of a number of the subscriber's geographically disposed locations based on the time of day. For example, a subscriber may have a home location and also may have a work location.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,695 entitled "Method of Redirecting a Telephone Call to an Alternative Destination," incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes a facility for redirecting a call, from a customer, from one destination point in a communication network to another destination point in the event that the customer's call has not been answered within a predetermined period of time for example, through a call forwarding feature or in the event that after the customer's call has been answered, the subscriber requests such redirection. This is accomplished by storing in the memory of a Network Control Point (NCP), a centralized data base, a ringing time value and a call redirect code to handle redirection of the 800-number call.
Further, a calling customer may initially reach the subscriber by dialing the toll free or 800 number provided by the subscriber. The calling customer is connected to a primary subscriber location designated to answer 800 calls. However, it may be determined that an operator at the primary subscriber's location cannot fully assist the calling customer and must redirect the call. In the event the attendant at the primary subscriber's location is unable to assist the calling customer, the primary subscriber redirects the call.
Prior art redirecting, routing and billing of calls, similar to that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,845 entitled "Post Answer Telephone Call Redirection or Rerouting," incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, typically employ an adjunct processor which provides a feature referred to as a "post answer call redirection" which monitors the customer's call after it is answered by an attendant or other subscriber personnel at the primary location. If the call is to be redirected from the primary location to an alternate location, the adjunct is signaled by inband signaling, for example, a dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) sequence, or by out of band signaling, for example, common channel interoffice signaling (CCIS). The adjunct responds by putting the calling customer on hold and initiating a call to the alternate location. The second call is initiated in such a way that it emulates or imitates both the routing and billing characteristics of a call made from the original calling customer's location. This feature is important because it bills the subscriber of the 800 number only for the first call and not the redirected call.
Besides 800 numbers, other intelligent systems, including "virtual private networks" and "software defined networks" (SDN) utilize the important features of routing, redirecting, and billing. The SDN system requires a subscriber to have a special internal dialing plan where the subscriber may make calls from many locations. Usually, SDN subscribers are large business entities; however, the system may be used by individuals. A toll office receives a special internal dialed number from the business subscriber where the dialed number is translated in a database to determine the routing of the call. The SDN system is implemented by retrieving subscriber stored numbers located in the database. The business subscriber dials the special internal number, a subscriber stored number is retrieved and the call is quickly routed to the desired party at a savings to the subscriber. U.S. Pat. No. 5,481,603, entitled "Intelligent Call Processing Based Upon Complete identification of Calling Station," incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, employs an intelligent processing method for routing intelligent systems using a local database called a global title translation (GTT) database incorporated with an originating switch to receive a query fully identifying the calling station. The GTT database responds to the query by identifying the particular NCP in the telecommunications network that contains the appropriate record for completing the call.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,475 entitled "Processing of the Telecommunications Call Billing Data," incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes a method for preparing a billing record for a special service telecommunications call such as a call over a software defined network. In order to properly bill and route SDN calls, multiple data bases are consulted to obtain the necessary information for handling these calls. A processor, implemented in a toll switch is programed to accept and store information associated with the routing and billing of SDN calls.
Since the computer processing switches that route calls within the telecommunications network typically lack sufficient capability to process customized services such as customized billing, call forwarding, answering services, voice messaging, and the like, separate processors, referred to as adjuncts have been incorporated in the telecommunications network. U.S. Pat. No. 5,550,911 entitled "Adjunct Call Handling for Accessing Adjunct-Based Capabilities Platform," incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes a method for allowing certain types of adjunct applications for telecommunications networks that require caller interaction during a call setup to temporarily access the adjunct and then to release the call back to the network for routing to the final destination. Specifically, when the call enters the network, the network originating switch directs certain calls to the adjunct. The adjunct may be locally located at the originating switch or may be located remotely off a centrally located switch. Once the call has been routed to the adjunct and caller interaction has been completed, the adjunct releases the voice connection back to the switch which then routes the call to its final destination. While adjuncts in the telecommunications network are able to route many different types of calls, adjuncts currently are not able to route software defined network calls. Accordingly, what is required is a network adjunct platform (NAP) capable of initiating the SDN call to a switch and supplying the switch with data to process the NAP initiated SDN call through the telecommunications network.